Tenchi's Thoughts: Yozakura Quartet Episode 1 Review

Subbers control our anime world, beware!

A week or two too late, but I have finally gotten around to watching Yozakura Quartet. Again, the summary was not much to go on and the only pictures of the series did not give me a lasting impression. But after reading a few other great blogs, I felt left out for not being up to speed on this series. I had a little bit of troubling finding a good subbed version, as many had very different interpretations of the first scene. I live in a spoiled time, having to choose which subbed version of a BRAND NEW SERIES TO WATCH instead of waiting at suncoast for my anime. ANYWAY, on to Yozakura Quartet ’s episode 1 review!

Hard at work blogging for the readers.

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A narrator opens up the series, explaining how youkai have found a way into the human world. Some sakura trees are known as Nanago are planted, as they are the only way to send the youkai back to their original world (some subbing versions say the trees were planted to welcome the youkai while others make the tress the way to send the youkai back home ONLY). To hide from the humans, the youkai built their own city called Sakura-Shin and eventually it became the only safe place that humans and youkai could live in peace. Inside the city is one human who has the power to exile the youkai that hurt humans, a descendent of the Hiizumi family. In real time, there is announcement playing warning the citizens to be careful of a criminal with guns on the loose. Slowly the main characters all gather at an office to discuss the gun person and how a new youkai was coming to live in the city, an undead one. Ao, a white haired cat like youkai and Kotoha, a youkai that can do lots of random things, leave to fix a house while the dragon youkai Hime and the human Akina discuss the gun suspect Kousuke. He had been in jail prior, but used his youkai powers to escape. Hime and her ogre partner Kishi Kyousuke chase down the suspect that night that has captured the new citizen, but he manages to escape. Hime is then seen speaking with an elder about how youkai are breaking through the barrier and there will be grave consequences if the cherry blossoms bloom before the matter is handled. The other three office people tend to the new citizen as she recovers from her ordeal. The suspect Kousuke takes another hostage, this time on live TV and calls out Hime. The gang arrives and Kousuke tries blasting them all away with his heavy gun collection. Each one of the youkai uses their power and he is finally overwhelmed. Right before Akina can come in and do his "tuning thing", the new citizen they saved earlier (named Rin) has decided that she is going to shoot Akina, because she hates humans. Well, too bad as Akina still does his thing and deposes (I think) of Kousuke. Hime tries to explain to Rin that some humans are needed so the youkai can live in peace. Somewhere on a tall building, another white hair cat eared person is talking about the group and how he looks forward to battling them.

Teenagers are always the ones protecting the towns LAZY ADULTS!

The characters are dynamic yet also very run of the mill. There is the tough girl Hime, who likes to go off and do her own thing, yet she is stuck working with people she does not find ideal. Of course the tough girl has to answer to another group of people, so the pressure is on her to perform. That could explain her less than sunny attitude. Ao is a young cat like youkai who is most likely the baby of the group. Her super cat ears can read people’s minds and she is generally the cute one. If I had to classify someone as the big boobed girl, it would have to be Kotoha, but her boobs were not so huge that it pissed me off. Her powers are to conquer up anything she wants. That seems like a very powerful skill; hopefully it will have some draw backs to make the battles not so one sided. Akina is the human of the bunch, the descendant of the Hiizumi family. He has the powers to “tune” away the youkai. It is not really clear how he did that, but he sent something inside of Kousuke flying. Akina does not appear to be scared or worried around this team of youkai. He actually seems close with his whole jumbled group of co-workers. This “Quartet” is responsible for protecting the humans and youkai in the town.

Hime and her magical spear that can deflect all bullets!

That is either mind reading or she saw the opening scene and is scared too!

The things I could do with that power....

And Akina's power, whatever it is!

There was another person who was hanging around with the group, but I am unsure of he counts as one of them. Kishi Kyousuke was called an ogre by the ominous white hair dude on the roof top. We have yet to see his ability and he does not seem to like anyone but Hime. He actually does not want to work with the others, but Hime feels as if they have no choice. He gets around on a bike, so I assume he cannot fly around like Hime can. He seems like a giant stick in the mud for now, maybe he will grow on me.

Do we have to work with them....

Someone who will NOT be growing on me is Rin. She is introduced as a new youkai in town, a reanimated demon thing that needs to feed off living beings to survive. Anywho, she arrives to town and is promptly kidnapped by Mr. Happy Trigger Kousuke. She is rescued, but has a funny way of showing her gratitude as she shows up later to protect Kousuke. Rin has been injured by humans in the past (as seen by the huge scar on her arm) so she hates all humans now. Even after Hime explains why they need Akina, she continues to be stupid. With her lame choice of outfit (kindergarten outfit anyone?) and ability to be swayed so easily, she is a weak character. She is in the previews next week, which makes me sad. I hope she does not join the crew and help them protect the town. She can find Nina from Code Geass and be freaks together.

Can't that explode on her face?

This week has been an interesting week it terms of how words are defined. First I watch an anime that has fairies that are not really fairies and now I watch an anime where youkai (defined as demon, spirits, or monsters) and not one youkai looked very monster like. Youkai in this anime look like regular humans with super powers. Perhaps later in the series, we will see some less than human youkai or maybe the human youkai are only hiding their true forms. That could explain the scene where Akina gets rid of Kousuke. At the end, only the body is left on the ground and a soul like thing is extracted from him. Perhaps that is the true youkai and they take on human form once they get to our world. So yeah, maybe I am asking for a lot of details for just the premier episode.

Youkai enjoy ramen too!

A disturbing part of the show was in the opening song. We got an eyeful of some cat eared youkai foreplay. Seriously, what was all that rubbing and wanting eyes?! It came off really creepy, especially like 20 seconds later when all we see is their feet and their upper bodies doing something. If it was meant to be memorable, it certainly reached its goal. I felt dirty after watching that scene. And I do not see what it has to do with the show. I have seen others refer to the scene as the man just cuddling and snuggling Ao, so the roof top guy is a not a bad guy. TOO BAD!! He has earned 100 creepy points in my book.

Hello, I am Chris Hansen and I'm with Dateline.

The drawing style is pretty okay, except for the eyes. Most of the characters have cat like eyes and only 2 (3 if you count that person in the hallway with the old official dude) characters are cat like. I would understand if all the youkai characters had cat like eyes, so that would be the distinguishing factor between humans and youkai, but Akina had cat like eyes too. But that was a small little thing; I will stop being a snob now.

Err, you tend not to notice the eyes with scenes like this.

Overall, the concept of the show seems pretty good. Yes, I have watched shows with two sides trying to get along despite fears from the other side (think Vampire Knights, without all the fake show of peace). Instead of demons living in fear, they get to live in a great town safe from crazy humans. I like how sakura trees play a part in the show besides just looking pretty. The is a little bit of mystery, what with Hime having to visit some secret society room and get orders. We have the bad guy promising to make life miserable for our heroes. And of course we have a person to hate (Rin). All and all a pretty decent show. So readers hurry up and watch Yozakura Quartet now before you get behind in the series! It has a little bit of everything it, so everyone should be able to get behind this show.